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Phuntography #4) Lomo that bitch.

In case you've been living under a rock, Lomos are the new black. Why are Lomos the new black? Because they're more fun than getting Le Serial Cynica pissed and taking her to a strip club. I know, right?! Lomography, Lomo cameras, and the "lomo look" are all the rage for one simple reason: it's fun.

To make a long story short, The Lomographic Society makes available all kinds of fun, fun, FUN!!! cameras for every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Cheap plastic cameras, the kind you don't feel guilty dropping on the cement, in a lake, or in to your beer. Why don't you feel guilty? Because they're cheap! Did I mention fun? Holy christ the FUN!

Photographers particularly love using lomos because they actually force you to think about imagery differently. Taking pictures with a Holga, for example, will give you varied results. The cheap plastic often leaks light between the seams, there's no control over focus, and a vignette might show up as unexpectedly as Tom Cruise announcing he's straight. Yeah, try *that* one on for size. In short, anal retentive photographers (uhhhh, not that I know any per se *cough cough*) often embrace the lomo because there's no pressure. You just stick it in your purse (or European Man Wallet, as it were), point, and shoot. Who KNOWS what you'll end up with?! It's like a little piece of Christmas in your European Man Wallet every time you step out the door. I'm tellin' ya, your friends will love you after shooting with these suckers (but between you and me, I'd have something on-tap as backup juuuuuust in case).

There's all kinds of variations and breeds of the Lomo camera. There's Miss Holga, the fabulous Fisheye, and for the conesseur of imperfection the Kompakt Automat might be right up your alley. There's plenty more flavors of lomo, so if you're interested I highly suggest checking out this website for more info.

If you don't have time for all that camera buying bullshit the "look" of the Lomo is easy enough to fake through photoshop. And by look I mean, artsy fartsy and saturated, but not dilated. I won't take credit for the following technique - it was all this site that made it popular... supposedly nicking it from another site before that one went down after having nicked it from another. Gotta love the web, eh? Since this technique's inception, this little script has found its way all around the world including the likes of Kottke and Flickr. My recommendation? Experiment with the technique below on both color and black and white photos, and keep the sources of your photoshop secret. It's really better that way for all parties involved.

This easy 17-step tutorial will seem long and involved the first couple times you do it. After you get used to 'doing it' the whole process is really quite simple and easy to manipulate. Kind of like sex. But you'll be rewarded in a very different way, I can quite assure you. Now get lomo'ing or feel free to check out some of my fakes here, here, here, or here.

Step 01) Click "Images", "Adjustments", "Brightness/Contrast...". Increase contrast by +20.
Step 02) Click "Images", "Adjustments", "Hue/Saturation...". Increase the saturation by +20.
Step 03) Choose the "Rectangular Marquee Tool" and change the feather amount to 1/12 the width of your picture. For example, if my picture if 540 pixels wide I set the feather amount to 45 pixels.
Step 04) Select the entire picture (CTRL + A, or right click and choose "Select all")
Step 05) Click "Select", and then "Inverse".
Step 06) Click "Layer", "New", and then "Layer...".
Step 07) Change your primary color to black.
Step 08) Fill the selection (on the new, blank layer).
Step 09) Change the blend mode of this layer to "Overlay".
Step 10) Click "Layer", and then "Duplicate Layer..."
Step 11) Select your base layer, the one with the original picture on it.
Step 12) Click "Layer", "New", and then "Layer".
Step 13) Change your fill tool to "Gradient", and the gradient type to "Spherical".
Step 14) Change your primary color to white.
Step 15) With the fill tool selected, click in the middle of the picture, and drag the line out to the farthest edge of your picture (if it's a portrait, use top or bottom, if landscape, use left or right). * Do note that you'll still see the rectangular marquee selection flashing. If it's not flashing then you'll need to repeat Steps 3, 4, and 5 to properly execute this step.
Step 16) Change the blend mode of this layer to Overlay
Step 17) Change the Opacity of this layer to 80% (or whatever you see fit - this number will change based on what works with the image).
Step 18) Thank Sophie for sharing and send her a cupcake.